Freescale appears to be a relatively standalone and maybe even the dominating part of what is NXP (or, Qualcomm) now... The NXP part still stands firmly on the no-8-bitter-anymore position, e.g. in http://www.nxp.com/documents...E-EASY.pdf they say it clearly:

It may be possible to continue designing around 8-bit technology. But times have changed. Does it make sense – even economically – to stick to an increasingly
limiting technology? And why risk being left behind? The move to 32-bit is inevitable.